Writing for Success – 9 Ways to Generate Article Ideas

Today we welcome Guest Blogger Eve, owner of Confessions of a Housewife
She shares 9 Ways to Generate Article Ideas.

As a full time blogger, I am constantly on the lookout for new article ideas. As a blogger it is all too easy to hit a writer’s block. Here are some methods I have come up with to help come up with topics.
1. Find and join forums and chat rooms about your niche. Watch what questions and problems get asked or talked about the most.
2. Stay up to date with world and local news and media websites for current hot topics, such as a study on obesity or a drop in the housing market. Keep your eyes open for your topics related news.
3. Run a poll or survey to ask your readers what type of information they want. Poll Daddy is my favorite free poll/survey provider.
4. Keep up to date with comments and keep an eye on trends of visitors asking questions or on heavily commented articles to see what works well.
5. Check book store sites to see what is on the best sellers list, this can sometimes lead to a few hot topics that are popular now.
6. Take advantage of the time of the year, for example, I have been writing several articles on holiday gift ideas for parents, teens, etc. Each in its own article.
7. Join some newsgroups and email discussion groups in your niche to see what people are discussing and asking.
8. Keep an eye out for current fads in your niche, articles can go over well if it is a current hot topic.
9. Keep a log of visitor questions you receive in email or comments, take a look at these often and pick on to reply to in an article.
Add these to your routine and you will never run out of article sources.

Article written by Eve, owner of Confessions of a Housewife. A full time professional blogger for nearly three years, I enjoy passing on my tricks of the trade.